On International Women’s Day yesterday, Health Minister Simon Harris said: ‘Today, as you know, is International Women’s Day. It’s very appropriate and fitting that on this day the Irish Government has taken a decision that we will have a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment and that we will have finalised the wording for that referendum.

‘I’m really looking forward to bringing that wording and the referendum bill into the Dail tomorrow.

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‘And the women we’re thinking of today on International Women’s Day are the women who have courageously told their personal sensitive stories.’

Protesters hold up placards during the London March for Choice, calling for the legalising of abortion in Ireland after the referendum announcement (Picture: AFP)

The move comes after a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday that protections for the unborn child offered under the state’s constitution do not extend beyond the right to life.

Campaigners are seeking to liberalise the regime to allow for unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks into pregnancy.

Citizens will be asked whether they want to remove the Eighth Amendment, which gives equal right to life to the mother and the unborn, and replace it with wording that would allow politicians to set Ireland’s abortion laws in the future.

That wording will be: ‘Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancies.’